Harris says Trump doesn’t need to be the ‘protector’ of women, he has to trust them to make their own decisions

By Eric Bradner, Katie Lobosco and Tami Luhby, CNN

(CNN) — Vice President Kamala Harris said Wednesday that women don’t need Donald Trump to be their “protector,” but instead need the former president “to trust them” to make their own reproductive decisions.

Harris’ comments, in an interview with MSNBC, came two days after Trump said at a rally he would be a “protector” of women and that they “will no longer be thinking about abortion” if he’s elected.

His plea to ignore his own role in undoing national abortion rights protections comes as polls show Harris has a clear lead among women who are likely to vote in the 2024 election.

Asked about Trump’s claim, Harris pointed to Trump saying during the 2016 campaign that women who undergo abortions should face “some form of punishment” if the practice were outlawed.

“Donald Trump is also the person who said women should be punished for exercising a decision that they rightly should be able to make about their own body and their future,” she said.

She said his decision to appoint three conservatives to the Supreme Court who in 2022 voted to overturn Roe v. Wade’s national abortion rights guarantee was “a result of that perspective that he has about women.”

“And now, state after state, you see laws being passed that do punish women,” Harris said.

She added: “The thing about Donald Trump is that, you know, I don’t think the women of America need him to say he’s going to protect them. The women of America need him to trust them.”

Harris’ comments came on a day she’d traveled to Pittsburgh to pitch her economic vision for the country.

She criticized Trump’s calls for broad tariff hikes, saying the former president is “just not very serious about how he thinks” about the matter.

“You don’t just throw around the idea of just tariffs across the board. And that’s part of the problem with Donald Trump,” Harris said.

In clips of the same interview, however, Harris declined to answer how she would achieve some of her own economic plans, instead focusing her answers on Trump’s recent statements about tariffs and past economic promises that failed to materialize.

Harris says Trump’s tariff talk is just a slogan

On Wednesday, she attacked Trump for not having a plan on tariffs that goes beyond a “talking point.” Trump has said he would slap steep tariffs on companies that don’t manufacture their goods in the United States, raising hundreds of billions of dollars that the former president says would be used to help the American people.

He has floated a 200% tariff on auto imports from Mexico, as well as another tariff upward of 60% on all Chinese imports. However, Trump has denied what economists say is the reality of such tariff hikes: Companies would pass those costs on to consumers through higher prices.

“He’s just not very serious about how he thinks about some of these issues,” Harris said. “And one must be serious and have a plan — and a real plan that’s not just about some talking point ending in an exclamation at a political rally, but actually putting the thought into what will be the return on the investment; what will be the economic impact on everyday people.”

Harris told MSNBC that Trump left office with “the worst economy since the Great Depression,” pointing to declines in manufacturing jobs under the former president whose last year in office also saw the economy dented by the coronavirus pandemic. She said Trump’s agenda would benefit wealthy Americans and large corporations, rather than the middle class.

“Donald Trump has a history of taking care of very rich people,” Harris said. “My perspective on the economy is when you grow the middle class, America’s economy is stronger.”

Working class appeals

Harris touted the endorsement of most major unions, but acknowledged that she has to win over those workers.

One way of doing so, she said, is making the case that Trump did not live up to his economic promises during his first term.

“Part of the challenge — and I don’t disagree that it’s a challenge; gotta earn the vote of everybody — is reminding people of facts, regardless of what somebody says in a small rally somewhere,” she said.

Harris said under her proposals, that for those earning less than $400,000 per year, “your taxes will not go up.”

She has said that 100 million Americans would receive federal tax relief, primarily through her expansion of the child tax credit, including a new $6,000 credit that parents would get in the first year of their child’s life.

Harris also said the United States is “going to have to raise corporate taxes” to pay for her economic proposals, such as an expanded child tax credit, downpayment assistance for first-time homebuyers and more. But she did not say how she would raise those taxes if Republicans control the Senate after November’s election.

“It’s about paying their fair share,” she said of corporations and wealthy Americans. “I am not mad at anyone for achieving success, but everyone should pay their fair share.”

She also sided with steelworkers who have opposed the $14.9 billion sale of US Steel to Japan’s Nippon Steel.

She said a strong American steel industry is critical to her plans to expand US manufacturing. She also pointed to the “overreliance on foreign manufacturing” that was laid bare during the coronavirus pandemic.

“Having American workers in an American company manufacturing that steel for those new industries is going to be critically important, not only in terms of our economy but also in the context of national security,” Harris said.

The interview came after Harris had delivered the economic-focused speech in Pittsburgh during which she pledged to expand the nation’s manufacturing industry.

“We will prioritize investments for strengthening factory towns, retooling existing factories, hiring locally and working with unions because no one that grows up in America’s greatest industrial or agricultural centers should be abandoned,” Harris said in her speech at the Economic Club of Pittsburgh.

Strengthening American manufacturing

Harris said Wednesday that, if elected, she will expand the nation’s manufacturing industry during a wide-ranging economic speech in Pittsburgh.

Some details about Harris’ plans were shared in a policy paper released by the campaign following her speech. Specifically, Harris is calling for a new tax credit that she would call “America Forward.” The tax credit would be targeted at investment and job creation in key strategic industries, according to the policy paper, which mentions steel and iron, biotechnology, artificial intelligence, semiconductors, aerospace, autos and farming.

“We will prioritize investments for strengthening factory towns, retooling existing factories, hiring locally and working with unions because no one that grows up in America’s greatest industrial or agricultural centers should be abandoned,” Harris said.

The tax credits would prioritize companies that protect the right to organize.

Harris also promised in her speech that by the end of her first term, she’d double the number of registered apprenticeships, which she described as “tough duty.” Registered apprenticeships have been a focus of the Biden administration, which has invested more than $750 million in expanding registered apprenticeships and pre-apprenticeship programs, according to Harris’ policy paper. It notes that new programs increased by 10% during Biden’s term.

In another bid for working class votes, Harris said she backs eliminating degree requirements and increasing skills-based hiring.

“Let’s start with something I can do as president, (which is) ensure that we do that for the half million of federal jobs that are within our ability to make it so, showing what is possible, and then challenging the private sector to make a similar commitment to emphasizing skills and not just degrees,” she said in her speech.

This story has been updated with additional information.

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